Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Everyone loves a special edition because, unlike a limited edition, it’s usually the forerunner of trickledown into the standard range. The hi-fi industry is a fertile ground for such bounty and the latest manufacturer to come up with a tempting morsel is Goldring, its new Ethos SE moving-coil taking its place at the top of the range, priced at £1299. Historically, while this is a big ticket for Goldring it is still rather more affordable than many a premium pick-up from the artisan suppliers based outside of the UK.

To create the ‘special’ within the Ethos SE, Goldring started with the standard Ethos and worked its magic both internally and externally. The most obvious difference is on the outside, for while the Ethos SE’s body is still made from aircraft-grade 6082-T6 aluminium, this has been black anodised to distinguish it from the clear anodisation of the standard model.

Generational Talent
At the business end, the SE’s aluminium cantilever and nude Vital line-contact diamond stylus tip, measuring 35x8µm, are carried over from the Ethos. Internally, Goldring’s hand-built ‘GOL-1’ generator assembly was first seen on 1988’s Excel pick-up but has undergone a series of improvements in the meantime. It is conceptually the same design, but as the current production supervisor at Goldring also worked on its original incarnation, there is perfect continuity here!

The cartridge and its matching matt black headshell bolts are presented in a fully recyclable, multi-layer pop-up cardboard box

Hot Stuff
Tweaks have been applied to elevate its performance for this SE version. It still uses a cross-shaped generator manufactured from Swedish iron, but with the pole shoes heated at a high temperature in a dry hydrogen atmosphere, preventing oxidation during the heating process, and then progressively cooled. This is said to enhance the magnetic properties rather than the more usual mechanical properties of the steel. It’s expensive, though, and reserved for the Ethos SE. The claimed outcome is both a flattening and extension of the frequency response.

The final big change between the Ethos and Ethos SE is the switch from standard copper wire to 4N silver for the latter’s coil windings. These are lower in resistance and with fewer windings used, so the moving mass of the coil assembly is lower. As a result, Goldring states a reduction in stylus tip mass from 0.37mg to 0.34mg compared to the regular Ethos, promising an improved transient response and, again, a wider frequency range. That said, the company does quietly gloss over the concomitant downside, namely a reduction in output level from 0.5mV to 0.35mV. Still, this remains a perfectly reasonable MC output level and nothing that a likely partnering phono stage will baulk at.